VIP Chapter 323: The First Floor of Dust Bone Corridor
As a result, Shuna seemed to replace “punishment” with “indulgence.” Instead of taking him to bed to rest, she let him go out with her as usual.
For the two days spent here, he wore a hat and mask to wander the streets, observing if there were any suspicious individuals related to him.
Later, Shuna teased that compared to the ordinary passersby, he looked more like the suspicious one.
Shuna exited the inn first, and he joined her as usual by climbing through the window.
“What is the function of this thing you mentioned?”
Will followed Shuna, but on the street, they didn’t seem like they were “communicating.” It was more like two people shopping separately, only exchanging a few words when they coincidentally stopped in front of a shop.
This “spy-like” behavior was to minimize any visible “connection” between Will and Shuna.
This was more of an “elimination method.” If they were being watched even after being so careful, then the method and identity of the watcher would be greatly narrowed down.
“Oh, it’s simple,” Shuna said while pretending to browse a street stall, “You can observe things with ‘magic’ around here.”
“Hmm?”
Will turned around.
Then, he indeed discovered a “surprise.”
This surprise was so “ahead of its time” that the function, which should have been easy to guess, he had completely missed despite guessing all the way here.
These were glasses with some kind of magic added – like detection magic, which could estimate the strength and distance of magic.
As if wearing electronic glasses common in sci-fi movies, his vision would briefly display relevant numbers. However, they were fleeting, and most of the time, there wasn’t much difference from normal.
For instance…
When an actor juggling fire magic for children in the distance turned around, Will could see numbers in units of “Xiu” on him.
And the distance between them.
The strength seemed not particularly accurate, with significant errors. It was unknown what combination of magic was used to calculate “Xiu,” as calculating magic strength itself was a difficult problem.
But…
The accuracy of the distance was not low. After all, quantitative calculations were always more difficult than qualitative analysis.
He now felt that these glasses were likely developed by Shuna herself and custom-made for him. Glasses with magical effects were not uncommon, but something that emphasized “numbers” so much would only be most useful to him.
“You are very sensitive to numbers,”
Shuna said slowly, with her back to him.
“Many adventurers can’t measure things in numbers in their lifetime, but the most difficult magic to quantify seems to be fixed numbers in your eyes. Glasses that can roughly give numbers should be very suitable for you.”
As she spoke, she cheerfully turned around, still pretending to browse the street stall.
“However, you are not allowed to complain if the built-in detection is inaccurate. You know, I fight purely on instinct, without any calculations.”
“It’s normal. Some designers are better at numbers, some are better at system design…”
“?”
Shuna stood up straight and scratched her head.
Will touched the glasses with great care; this gift was indeed very useful to him.
From the moment he realized Shuna was the first limited-edition character in the game he designed, he understood that this world was not simply “a story from a novel.”
It contained quite a bit of content from the game he had created.
Even more apparent was…
The numbers here were almost completely copied from the game. He was even surprised, thinking back to when he was a child, that he should have realized it when matching moves and multipliers.
Although he didn’t remember all the skills, with a little measurement, he could roughly figure out which part of the numerical model it belonged to. At the same time, the decay formula for distance he had randomly given also made sense.
“However, don’t treat it as a tool. Consider it a gift and cherish it well.”
“Eh?”
Will felt a strong sense of jealousy in Shuna’s words.
“Someone gave you a storage ring and blood; someone gave you earrings carrying demonic power and useful glasses; someone gave you a collar for defensive magic…”
Shuna waved towards a shop, indicating she didn’t want anything, and then brushed past him.
“Then, I must also give you something that can be useful in your battles against death.”
As she passed him, Will thought he saw the defiant look Shuna always had, no matter where she was.
Being defiant even in a place like this was very much in character for Shuna.
“Let’s continue talking about my discoveries in Dust Bone Corridor. You were right before. Perhaps your death by a Slime was not an accident.”
The two sat on chairs facing away from each other in a coffee shop, pretending to be strangers.
This was a question Will had been pondering since he arrived.
It was even a question he believed would be a breakthrough.
A very important question.
The monster distribution in dungeons was not “random”; it had a very strong pattern.
Looking at the monsters in the Tenth Demon City and Lucifer’s choices, even an Emperor could not predict which powerful subordinate he would randomly obtain.
Then…
Such a dungeon, which, even in a seaside city, particularly emphasized “sand,” “dryness,” and “desert” – a dungeon whose facade resembled a pyramid…
The appearance of a Water Slime, and a Water Slime appearing on the first floor, was particularly strange.
“What is it?”
“Following your line of thought. I casually accepted a guiding commission and went from the first floor of Dust Bone Corridor to the tenth floor – by the way, this dungeon is very young; it currently only has thirty floors.”
“The first floor has no Slimes, right?”
“More than that.”
Shuna interrupted Will’s speculation.
“It was a wasteland, a desert. As a first floor with such a low rating, it had nothing.”
“Nothing… means the condition for clearing the first floor is… just to walk out, right?”
“Mhm,” Shuna nodded. Seeming to find just sitting uncomfortably, she asked the coffee shop for a plain latte. “Entak doesn’t seem to have deserts, but Dust Bone Corridor is entirely desert. An endless expanse of sand, a scorching light source perpetually hanging overhead, and air completely devoid of moisture.”
Although he hadn’t seen a desert in Entak, Will had some understanding of deserts. Just by hearing Shuna’s description, he could imagine what the first floor of Dust Bone Corridor was like.
“No need to think, no need to guess, no need to solve puzzles. The barren first floor had a dilapidated signpost; following it would lead to the next floor.”
Shuna took a sip of her coffee.
For a brief minute, neither of them spoke, seemingly pondering this very important piece of information.
Especially Will.
He felt a chill run down his spine.
Meaning, what he suspected might be true.
“So? You should understand now. Forget about dying by being crushed by a Slime at the entrance. There wasn’t even an ‘accident’ that could cause your death there – so, you gambled right.”
Behind his death, which was full of comedy, mockery, and absurdity, after acknowledging all cause-and-effect logic…
“Your death may indeed have been orchestrated by someone.”
As she finished this sentence, Shuna had just put down her coffee, and the sound of the coffee cup colliding with the glass tabletop was exceptionally crisp.
Then, in the coffee shop, sounds erupted one after another –
“The Radiant Knights are here.”
“An S Rank Adventurer party? They’re coming here too?”
“Don’t block the way, let me see.”
